liralen: Finch Painting (Default)

Lately, I've been feeling like I've been run over by a truck, but got away with it.

Bruised, battered, aching all over, but I'm alive, and I'm whole and I can keep going. It's not physically difficult for me to live and do the things that life needs of me, but so difficult mentally and emotionally.

Read more... )
liralen: Christmas Hat on Me (Christmas)
The rest of the trip as it struck me. With pictures as I'm able to supply them.

Cut to be polite with the pictures... )

Home Again

Jun. 10th, 2017 12:22 am
liralen: (Ukitake Tea)
I had a salad today.

There are some things that I miss when I'm on the road, and in particular, oddly enough, is the food that I can get at home. A salad with half a slice of crumbled bacon, half a perfectly hard boiled egg with a moist yolk, bits of Stilton, apple, candied pecans, creamy blue cheese dressing, and a whole bowlful of young spring greens that were on sale at the local super market for only 2.79, less than a quarter of what such a salad would cost at any of the restaurants. Or a soft boiled egg with a few droplets of soy sauce on the yolk with a slice of toast, buttered and slathered with quince jelly from the quince tree in our neighbor's backyard...

It's good to be home... )

Band Mom

Oct. 10th, 2015 09:42 pm
liralen: Finch Painting (My_hat)
It seems that I am a band mom. *laughs* And not just a band mom, but a marching band mom, which seems a different breed of sorts. And it seems that John and I have done our usual thing, which is just dive in and do stuff.

Jet has had marching band competitions both last weekend and this weekend. Luckily, or unluckily, depending on how you look at it, last year, his high school's marching band placed dead last in the standings, so there really was only room for improvement. And they have improved. The band director is really fun, and really wants his kids to have fun and grow with the experience, so it's been good watching the kids figure out what it is that they can do.

Read more... )

Moon Season

Oct. 1st, 2015 09:17 am
liralen: Finch Painting (Moon)
Things have gone well for the past couple of weeks.

Read more... )
liralen: Finch Painting (flying snow)
Sadly, that night, the fire alarm went off. Three times.

The first time was a good hour long build up of the alarm getting louder and louder and... finally we actually got up and went out into the hallways, and there were firemen in gear, going to find something. There were also people in their pajamas going back to their rooms, as they'd found out, already, that there was no fire. Some of them had been standing outside for most of that time, in the rain.

Then it went off again. This time it was relatively short, and everyone got to find out that it was being caused by a wiring short that was happening because of the rain getting in through one of the fire alarm throw switches on the outside of the building. Nearly everyone had assumed that it was one of the kids, because we were also sharing the entire floor with a summer camp as well as our own. When it went off again at 4am, I just put my pillow over my head, rolled over and went back to sleep. I was so tired, it was easy.

It did make the day a little harder, but I slept like a log for the first week and a half back home, too. I did, however, in the morning, manage to upload the picture of my painting for the challenge, and people highly approved the fact that I was using what I could while traveling.

Read more... )
liralen: (crane)
Jet had a blast with the Middle School District Honor Band. They basically all played together twice, though the big one was that yesterday, which is normally a 'late start' day, he went in at 8:30 and played all day with the band, in sectionals, and then together again. The clinician said that the real payoff for him, was working so intently with a bunch of great, dedicated kids, and the performance was just the icing in the cake.

It was mighty impressive icing.

And there was music... And now there's late hats and pictures.... )
liralen: Finch Painting (Finch)
During the flood, a woman had the first floor of her house completely wiped out and along with it was a piano that she'd had for most of her life. Her brother is a concert pianist, she is not, but she took great comfort in the music. She's a single mom, and was living in a friend's house while we were rebuilding hers. She worked on her house pretty much every time I was there, and near the beginning John realized that she really missed her piano.

So we lent her mine.

Read more... )
liralen: Finch Painting (black cat)
Jet and I did our best to make John's Father's Day a good one, and we all had a great time. Waffle breakfast, church where the boys ushered and I was liturgist, and Luke preached a wonderful sermon about the difference between a God who loves you despite who you are and a God who loves you no matter who you are or where you are on life's journey. How much harder that latter belief can be to keep, but also how rewarding it is.

This after a concert by Bobby Jo Valentine last night. It was a tiny, intimate affair. Bobby Jo was raised in a very conservative family, and he was being vetted to do ministry in a big way as he was traveling all over the country preaching specifically to young adults. Then he decided to come out as gay. Everyone he knew told him he shouldn't do it, that he shouldn't *be* it, and after a very dark nine months, he came out with a faith that shines bright. Here's a link to one of his songs.

More Peaceful Things for Today. )
liralen: Finch Painting (oceanriku)
Stolen from [livejournal.com profile] bellumina:
RULES

1. Put Your iTunes, Windows Media Player, ETC on Shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
4. Put any comments in brackets after the song name. I agree with Lil’ italics
5.Put this on your journal.


Read more... )
liralen: Finch Painting (oceanriku)
Stolen from [livejournal.com profile] bellumina:
RULES

1. Put Your iTunes, Windows Media Player, ETC on Shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
4. Put any comments in brackets after the song name. I agree with Lil’ italics
5.Put this on your journal.


Read more... )
liralen: Finch Painting (merboy)
I've discovered an interesting side effect of not working during the summer.

We've gone through two bottles of SPF 50 sunscreen already and are through one bottle of mosquito repellent. I guess we spend a lot more time in the outdoors now than we used to. It's a good thing, all in all. I feel more fit than before.

Read more... )
liralen: Finch Painting (merboy)
I've discovered an interesting side effect of not working during the summer.

We've gone through two bottles of SPF 50 sunscreen already and are through one bottle of mosquito repellent. I guess we spend a lot more time in the outdoors now than we used to. It's a good thing, all in all. I feel more fit than before.

Read more... )
liralen: Finch Painting (snowflake)
At the moment it's 1.2° F (-17° C). The highs around here have been in the teens and lows have been a bit below zero without wind chill, with wind chill it's down around -16° F (-27° C).

It's not Minnesota or the East Coast. They're actually having warmer weather there than we are. Hmph. We usually have warmer weather than they do and it's just a bit weird to have snow so fine and dry that the only way to get it off the sidewalks is to use either a squeegie or a push broom. It's powder fine and even after a few days on the ground it still crunches under the feet.

It definitely is cold enough that my body *knows* it'll die if I stay out there much. But Jet seems to ignore it cheerfully in order to kick and push every single bit of snow he can find. Boys. *laughter*

It's been about this cold since Thursday afternoon, on Thursday you could watch the thermometer just start to drop down and down and down. Wednesday was in the 50's and we were thawed enough we could actually see a bit of ground between the white and a bit of black top right in front of the house. But about an inch or so fell on Friday, half an inch the night before Saturday, and then another two or three inches today. Powdery fine stuff. Excellent if we were a ski resort, but we're not!! Hmph.

It is beautiful, though.

And for something completely different... )
liralen: Finch Painting (snowflake)
At the moment it's 1.2° F (-17° C). The highs around here have been in the teens and lows have been a bit below zero without wind chill, with wind chill it's down around -16° F (-27° C).

It's not Minnesota or the East Coast. They're actually having warmer weather there than we are. Hmph. We usually have warmer weather than they do and it's just a bit weird to have snow so fine and dry that the only way to get it off the sidewalks is to use either a squeegie or a push broom. It's powder fine and even after a few days on the ground it still crunches under the feet.

It definitely is cold enough that my body *knows* it'll die if I stay out there much. But Jet seems to ignore it cheerfully in order to kick and push every single bit of snow he can find. Boys. *laughter*

It's been about this cold since Thursday afternoon, on Thursday you could watch the thermometer just start to drop down and down and down. Wednesday was in the 50's and we were thawed enough we could actually see a bit of ground between the white and a bit of black top right in front of the house. But about an inch or so fell on Friday, half an inch the night before Saturday, and then another two or three inches today. Powdery fine stuff. Excellent if we were a ski resort, but we're not!! Hmph.

It is beautiful, though.

And for something completely different... )

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